My main message is Brexit does not belong to the Conservative Party. It belongs to us all whether in different parties or people who voted Leave or Remain in the referendum.

I hope today to dispel some myths and establish some facts about the European Economic Area Agreement, EEAA and why it is a potential vehicle for the ‘implementation period’ that should follow exiting the EU and which we will leave once we have an EU/UK trade agreement or conclude the EU is too dysfunctional to offer an agreement of mutual advantage.

What this existing EEAA transitional mechanism provides is a framework which we leave when we want to after having left the EU after two years with a further three years maximum for agreeing a trade agreement. There is no cliff edge. No point where we negotiate in good faith and find the design of Article 50 precipitates a crisis choice ‘accept or chaos’ under this existing legal structure. David Cameron told the country before the referendum that we would invoke Article 50 while ignoring the fact that it is designed in a way that is a deterrent to leaving because of its in-built cliff edge. The design is deliberate so that in some circumstances we could be left with a ‘take it’ or ‘leave it’ offer with little time to adapt.

It was not foolish for the government to say that faced by a bad offer from the EU, which we are not allowed to change, we would leave. It would have been irresponsible to declare any other position. But it would also be irresponsible not to assert our right to remain a Contracting Party to the EEAA after we have left the EU, and if necessary to exercise our right to use the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, VCLT, dispute procedure to establish in law that right.

The EEA Agreement is binding upon the Contracting Parties, one of which is the UK. It is a multilateral international treaty. It is not a bilateral agreement between the EU and EFTA as is sometimes supposed. Decision-making autonomy in respect of treaties is, of course, constrained for EU Member States, but by the EC/EU Treaties, not by the EEAA.

NEU states, as the UK will be after leaving in March 2019, retain their unconstrained treaty-making powers outside the ECJ: a major difference between the entailments of the EC/EU Treaties and of the EEAA.

Latest publication:

BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY AFTER BREXIT. Available 13 July. At a time of alarming global instability, a clear and focused foreign and defence policy is ever more critical. Now that UK’s departure from the EU is underway, what happens next? Preview

Brexit: An amicable divorce?

Speech to University of Oxford International Relations Society 17 May 2017 via Voices from Oxford.

Speech

YouTube Channel

Filmed speeches and broadcasts from the lead-up to the EU referendum in which Lord Owen sets out why he supported 'Vote Leave'. Simply click on the logo.

Diary

5 October
UCL Diplomacy in Action Society

6 October
Althorn Literary Festival

8 October
Brexit: Britain on the Global Stage
Cheltenham Festival The Times Forum

11 October
Annual Churchill Conference, New York

10 November
RUSI seminar on ‘British Foreign Policy After Brexit’

12 November
Southwold Ways with Words

14 November
Chatham House Conference on International Humanitarian Issues

19 November
Looe Literary Festival

Welcome

This site features Lord Owen's thinking on current issues - it is not archival. Lord Owen's papers covering his time as a Minister and Foreign Secretary in the UK Government, in the Social Democratic Party and as EU Co-Chair of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia are available from the University of Liverpool Library's Special Collections and Archives. A catalogue is here: Lord Owen's Archive.